The Adventures of Darius & Downey

A series of true, blood-pumping adventures in the tough, tight-knit world of street art.

Darius (aka Leon Reid IV) and Downey (aka Brad Downey) did their first piece together in Brooklyn in 2000. This fraught but life-changing experience marked the birth of a partnership that would go on to revolutionize street art.

Narrated by Ed Zipco, here are Darius & Downey’s early exploits and brushes with the law and death; their daring daylight operations disguised as city workers and eventual creative interventions on the cityscapes of London and Berlin. Along the way, we witness their artistic evolution from conventional graffiti tagging to ambitious street installations that are wittily entertaining yet strikingly subversive.

The vivid narrative depicts a creative but harsh environment of extremes – friendship and rivalry, respect and conflict, adversity and prosperity – and reveals the incredible risks that artists take, day in, day out, to win their place in the graffiti hall of fame. Leon Reid IV was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1979. He grew up in Cincinatti before attending Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, and Central St Martins College of Art and Design, London. Brad Downey was born in 1980 into a military family, traversing towns across America as a child. He studied at Pratt Institute and later at the Slade School of Art, London. Ed Zipco was born in 1975 in a flatbed truck, just outside Memphis, Tennessee. He graduated from Pratt Institute and from Columbia University’s School of Journalism.

Also of interest: Blek Le Rat